A specimen of Common Hawthorn found at…
December 1645 CE
A specimen of Common Hawthorn found at Glastonbury, first mentioned in an early sixteenth century anonymous metrical Lyfe of Joseph of Arimathea, is unusual in that it flowers twice in a year, once as normal on "old wood" in spring, and once on "new wood" (the current season's matured new growth) in the winter.
This flowering of the Glastonbury Thorn in mild weather just past midwinter is accounted miraculous.
The original Glastonbury Thorn itself is cut down and burned as a relic of superstition by Cromwellian troops (or 'Roundheads' by another source) during the English Civil War.